


I see longing in your stare

by rocketsfindplanets (orphan_account)



Category: Class (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Just ignore canon, M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 01:32:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11071257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/rocketsfindplanets
Summary: He traced his fingers over the mark on his back, over one shoulder blade. /You are new boy from class, no?/Charlie didn't know what it meant, but the script that the text was printed in was loopy and beautiful, one small comfort in such an alien world.





	I see longing in your stare

**Author's Note:**

  * For [expolsion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/expolsion/gifts).



> If you follow me here for my football RPF and don't know what this is, please consider watching Class!! It's an eight-episode BBC series that's a spin-off of Doctor Who (don't worry if you're not a DW fan it's its own thing tbh) that needs some support so that it doesn't get cancelled.. There's lots of diversity and complex, realistic relationships (like Matteusz and Charlie!) and it's definitely worth a watch.
> 
> (Title from Honey by Magic Man.)

He took it to simply be another curiosity of the human form; no more, no less. It had taken him some time to notice it, too, and he hadn't ever until now, standing shirtless in front of a mirror, hair ruffled from sleep.

Humans were quite curious things, he thought, though he'd yet to really interact with one.

He traced his fingers over the mark on his back, over one shoulder blade. _You are new boy from class, no?_ Charlie didn't know what it meant, but the script that the text was printed in was loopy and beautiful, one small comfort in such an alien world.

A minute more of observation in the mirror and he let his hand drop in favor of grabbing and tugging on a shirt, slowly beginning to button it up. He had a first day of school to be getting ready for, after all.  
  
Not too long and he was out of his bedroom, smiling ever-so-slightly when he saw Quill already up. "Good morning," he offered, smiling a bit wider at that. The miracle that humans called Google had kept him better company than sleep the last few nights if he was honest, but it was paying off.

She looked over, unimpressed. "Been doing your research?" she asked.  
  
"A bit," he answered carefully, shrugging slightly. "Not enough, probably."

"Probably not," she agreed.

Charlie almost didn't stop her as she walked out the door soon after, but last second, _he did_. "Hey."

She looked back, quirking an eyebrow.

"Do you have... ah, writing, anywhere, on your skin?"  
  
"No?"  
  
"Ah." Charlie thought. "Never mind that, then. You're headed to the school, now?"  
  
"Yes. I do have a job, now."

"Right."  
  
"What. Is there a problem with that, master?" she asked sharply, bottled-up bitterness leaking through in her tone.  
  
He waved her away, biting his tongue. "I'll take my leave in a few minutes," he said, and that was that.  
  
Once she was gone, he found that he really didn't know what to do. He stared at the clock in their kitchen, tapping his fingers against the counter. A few minutes of this and he grabbed his bag, full of supplies that they had deemed necessary, and headed to school himself.

  
  
.

  
  
At first, everybody wanted to talk to him. The new guy from Sheffield. The novelty faded _fast_ , though, as it rapidly became clear that he wasn't very good at holding a conversation. No surprise there.  
  
There was one girl though, April. She had bright eyes and a soft smile, and hadn't hesitated so far in her hospitality. It was kind of nice. He tried to pick up on some social cues from her. He learned about waving, and about something that she had called prom. Charlie still didn't exactly understand, but he had smiled and nodded along nevertheless.  
  
He had, also, seen a glimpse of black ink on her wrist. He couldn't see what it said, but that didn't matter.  
  
They thankfully had a number of classes together, including Miss Quill's. He was more than happy to sit beside her, watching as other students slowly dribbled in. That's whenever he saw _him_ .  
  
A few people had piqued his interest throughout the day, admittedly, but not as much as the man who had just walked through the door. An unfamiliar heat rose in his cheeks.  
  
"April?" He leaned in close, voice soft enough for only her to hear.  
  
"Hm?" She looked up, smiling slightly.  
  
"Who is that?" He tried to gesture at him without making it too obvious.  
  
It took a moment, but April did eventually catch on. "Matteusz," she responded. "You should talk to him, it'd be good to make another friend." He nodded slightly. A good idea, he thought, but not one for that moment. Class was starting.

  
  
.

  
  
It wasn't until after the end of the school day that Charlie got the chance to talk to him. And it was chance, really; he had just happened to see Matteusz on his way out.  
  
"Hey," he said, smiling. He offered a small wave, wanting to come off as friendly.  
  
Matteusz looked at him, seeming to think for a moment. "You are... ah, new boy from class, no? New student from Sheffield."  
  
It occurred, suddenly, to Charlie, that although he had been thinking about Matteusz since he had seen him, the other boy didn't necessarily know who he was at all. He could've sworn that he had smiled at him in class...  
  
"Yes," Charlie responded eventually, cheeks brushed by a rosy pink.  
  
"Come on, I just kid,” he chuckled. “You are Charlie?"  
  
"And you are Matteusz," he confirmed, unable to help a smile even as he looked down at his shoes, trying to regain a bit of composure. It was pitiful, how easily this human had gotten to him, even before they had ever spoken. He had faced a lifetime of suitors but this, _this_ was new.  
  
"I am." Matteusz smiled, too, and Charlie's heart melted. "Did you need something?"  
  
"Oh, uh, no, I just... thought it would be nice to be friends?"  
  
He hoped that that wasn't too weird of a thing to say, but when Matteusz laughed, he worried a bit. Even if it was one of the most beautiful sounds he'd heard.  
  
"Alright. We can be friends. You have phone number?"  
  
Charlie perked up. That was something that he did indeed have. He scrambled to retrieve his phone from his pocket. Other than Google it was mostly untouched, so it took him a moment to remember where he could find his contacts.  
  
"You can give me yours?" Charlie asked, hopeful. Matteusz just nodded and took the device, typing for a moment before handing it back.  
  
"Text me some time, yeah? I have to head home now, but we can talk," Matteusz said, smiling brightly, already starting to walk away. Charlie just nodded, trusting.

  
  
.

  
  
The words lingered in Charlie's mind, the scene replaying over and over again. There hadn't been anything particularly odd about the exchange, and yet...  
  
Charlie let his fingers trace over the words on his back. He considered Googling it at one point, as Google had had all of the answers up to this point.

Coincidence, perhaps?  
  
He knew better.   
  
The query remained typed but unsearched on his phone. Why did it much matter, anyway? The words were a nice reminder. Of Matteusz. Of his smile, his voice, the way that the next day during class, he had met Charlie's glances more than once.  
  
When April brought it up again, Charlie asked Matteusz to the prom.  
  
Everything went downhill from there.

  
  
.

  
  
He could still feel the weight of Matteusz's head on his shoulder, long after they went their separate ways. He hadn't thought that the human would ever want to talk to him again, and he had the suspicion that he still  might not.  
  
Charlie knew that Matteusz was "grounded" but that hadn't stopped him from texting him, multiple times. He never got an answer. (April explained, later, and he felt rather foolish.)  
  
So, the next time he saw him was at school. That was good enough. And when Matteusz saw him and smiled and waved, it was more than just good enough.  
  
"Matteusz," he greeted, voice wavering a bit. "Is there any chance that we can talk somewhere more private? I simply don't want somebody to overhear..."  
  
But Matteusz was already leading him away, to outside, behind the school.  
  
"What is it?" he asked softly, and Charlie couldn't find the words to say.  
  
They were really there, and Matteusz was still talking to him, he didn't hate him, and...  
  
When he felt the pad of Matteusz's thumb brushing against his cheekbone, he looked him in the eye.  
  
"It's nothing, nothing serious anyway... I just wanted to ask you something? About, uh, humans."  
  
He was usually more composed than this and he hated how every time he saw Matteusz, he seemed to melt. "Of course. I will tell you anything I can."  
  
"There are... words. On my skin. This is normal?"  
  
Matteusz nodded slowly. "People do not talk a lot about it here, but yes. Is... Did you have soulmates on your planet?"  
  
He shook his head. "No, I'm not familiar with the word."  
  
"Well... the words, whoever says them to you, when you first meet them... that's your soulmate." Talking about it seemed to pain Matteusz, a little, and he wondered if he should end the conversation. He didn't. "Here."  
  
For a brief moment, Charlie thought that Matteusz was taking his pants off right there and he panicked, but he just pushed them down a little, showing some of his hip. "You see?"  
  
In small print, right on the hipbone. _Hey_.

"Yeah."  
  
"It is very difficult for me, lots of people say hey. Hard to tell who it could be."  
  
Charlie thought. "And if... somebody is your soulmate, what does that mean?"  
  
Matteusz smiled slightly, pulling his pants up fully. He could almost swear that he saw sadness in that smile. "A soulmate is..." He paused. "Is hard to explain. Your soul just fits with them, you are supposed to be with them and love them forever, unconditionally, always. Perfect partner for somebody."  
  
There was a long moment of quiet as Charlie let himself mull over that. _Soulmates_. "I can't have a soulmate."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Rhodians don't have soulmates." It was simple, a statement of fact. Matteusz just nodded.  
  
"But you are in a human body, so do you have human soulmate?" he asked thoughtfully.  
  
"I still have a Rhodian soul though," Charlie protested. "It's not possible."  
  
Matteusz dropped it after that, and they soon went back inside. They didn't speak of it again.

 

.

  
  
Google was quickly becoming Charlie's best friend.  
  
(Other than Matteusz. But Matteusz was his _boyfriend_ and ever since the whole soulmate conversation, things with them had been a little bit tense. Neither of them mentioned it.)  
  
He had essentially ditched any further research on human mannerisms and "pop culture" to focus on soulmates. There was a bounty of information out there, but apparently people didn't really talk about it much. That explained why Matteusz had seemed so uncomfortable, he supposed. He hoped that he hadn't minded too much.  
  
Of course, he couldn't find anything too helpful on Google. It wasn't like humans knew if a Rhodian could have a soulmate.  
  
Every logical part of him said no. He was a Rhodian prince, not a human, no matter what his current form said otherwise. His soul was a Rhodian soul. (He tried not to let his mind linger on Rhodian souls, right then.)

It sort of hit, then, that he might really be there, on Earth, like this, forever. Charlie looked down at his body. There were worse fates, for sure. Here, he had Matteusz, and a group of friends. That was more of a social life than he ever would have been offered on Rhodia, for sure.

He thought again of Matteusz, then. He seemed to do that rather often (not that he minded).

Charlie really did love him, more than he had ever thought possible. He had known his whole life that he was going to end up with somebody who he did not love, and he had accepted that rather early on. He had never known that love like this would feel so sweet.

He brushed the pads of his fingers against his lips, imagining that they were Matteusz’s fingers instead. Or Matteusz’s lips. He let his hand fall, after a moment.

He still didn’t believe that he had a soulmate, but if Matteusz believed, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

 

.

 

They didn’t speak of it again, until they did.

Charlie was lying in Matteusz’s arms, boneless and panting as the Pole’s lips dragged endlessly over his neck. He was perfectly content to stay there in his room forever, bundled up under his blanket and in his boyfriend’s arm.

“Charlie?”

He didn’t want to speak so he didn’t just murmuring his acknowledgement and looking back. When he felt Matteusz’s fingers tracing over the back of his shoulder, he tensed slightly, licking his lips

“You asked about soulmates. And you…”

He felt his throat go dry. “Yes?”

“You… you did not tell me.”

“I did not.”

Slowly, carefully, Matteusz turned him so that they were facing each other. His eyes were searching, though Charlie wasn’t sure for what. He wished that he knew so that he could give it to him.

“But you still do not believe. That you actually have a soulmate.”

Charlie bit his lip. He didn’t answer, watching Matteusz for a moment before pressing his face into his neck, breaths short. He didn’t want to answer.

“I see.”

He wished that he couldn’t feel and hear his heartbreak so acutely. He didn’t understand, at all. All he understood was that he was more than happy with how things were, and he thought that Matteusz was, too.

Charlie closed his eyes and let himself slowly drift to sleep in Matteusz’s arms.

 

.

 

“You are familiar with soulmates?”

April looked up from her paper in surprise, brows furrowed as she thought. “I mean, yeah, everybody is… Why do you ask?” Her tone was careful, not quite sure what she was getting herself into. That was fair, he thought.

Charlie tapped his fingers against his thigh. “Are they important? How important?”

She shrugged slightly. “Most people think they’re pretty important I guess, you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life with them, so…”

“I see. But humans date people who are not their soulmates all the time, right?”

“Right.”

“Why?”

Again, April shrugged. “Just to… have somebody, I guess. Most people end up with their soulmates in the end, anyway. It just kind of works out. We don’t have to understand.”

 _We don’t have to understand_.

“Thank you, April.”

“Yeah, any time. Why, do you…” She let her voice trail off. “Never mind.”

Charlie didn’t bother trying to figure out what she had wanted to say.

 

.

 

Matteusz had told him what a soulmate was. That didn’t stop Charlie, now, from Googling _what is a soulmate_. It hadn’t been a big deal to him, personally, but he hated the sad, wistful looks that he was starting to expect from Matteusz when he thought that he wasn’t looking.

There were a surprising number of technical articles, journals and studies and other long pieces that Charlie didn’t really want to read. He read them all.

The problem was that it all had to do with feelings, and it was hard to do anything too technical with those. There was no way to really tell that somebody was your soulmate other than the words on your skin. Charlie hated that, the lack of solid proof that one’s soul was bonded to another’s like so.

He gave up, eventually. It wasn’t worth it. He still had Matteusz, and he still loved him, and Matteusz still loved him back. No reason to tamper with that any further. Right?

He let himself relax. He stopped reading interpretations of soulmates so feverishly, stopped worrying. He knew enough to know that it was something deeper than he had with the souls in the Cabinet, and that was enough for him.

(Charlie couldn’t stop his mind from wandering, often, to the words on his back. He wondered if there had been a mistake. Maybe Matteusz had a different soulmate. Like he had said, it was hard to tell. Maybe Charlie was in the way.)

Maybe it was just one of those human things that he would never fully understand, anyway. He left it at that.

(Maybe Charlie was his soulmate. Maybe Charlie wanted to be.)

 

.

 

Charlie let out a moan as Matteusz so violently pulled his shirt from his body, letting him move him around however he wished. His boyfriend was really rather strong for a human, picking him up like it was nothing.

It brought some colour to Charlie’s skin, thinking about the ease with which he lifted him, sometimes.

He scrambled to get his hands under Matteusz’s shirt, moaning again as the Pole pressed a thigh between his legs. He immediately tried to move up against him, rutting desperately. He wasn’t usually so needy, he thought, but Matteusz had been working him up intentionally, all day, small touches here and there.

Things still weren’t quite right with them, still, Charlie could tell. Right then, he didn’t care.

It wasn’t long and Matteusz was dragging him to the bedroom, placing him down gentler than he wanted right then, climbing onto him and kissing him like there was no tomorrow.

Matteusz definitely wasn’t gentle. But he was _loving_ , murmuring to Charlie the whole time how he loved him, how perfect he was. And it was perfect.

When he came, Matteusz continued to gently stroke him until he was done shaking, just leaning heavily against the Pole, breath coming out in little puffs. They stayed like that, for a long moment, and Charlie thought that maybe he would be okay with staying there forever.

Eventually, though, his boyfriend pulled away and got up. Charlie only whined, wanting to reach out for him. He didn’t though, just watched. When Matteusz came back he had a glass of water, and a towel. Charlie stayed still as he cleaned him off, wondering how he had landed somebody so caring.

He happily drank some of the water, though he insisted that Matteusz have some, too. Eventually he returned to bed and Charlie hummed softly, pleased, as he lazily wrapped an arm around him.

“I love you,” Matteusz whispered, not for the first time that evening. Charlie smiled lazily.

“I love you, too.”

There was a pause before Matteusz began to speak again. “Charlie… Even if you do not believe in soulmates… I think I want to be with you. Forever.”

Charlie couldn’t find his voice. He turned slowly to look at Matteusz. His cheeks were still flushed with colour, his hair was still sticking up here and there, some strands sticking to his face.

“I’ve… done some research,” Charlie started slowly, gently going to rest his head against Matteusz’s chest. He exhaled softly whenever his boyfriend’s hand began to nonchalantly card through his hair, feeling some of his tension float away. “About soulmates. And… I want to be with you forever, too.”

He wasn’t sure how many minutes passed, after that, neither of them saying anything. Neither of them had to, really. Charlie closed his eyes at some point, just enjoying being near him. “Is this what having a soulmate is like?” he quietly asked.

Another beat of silence passed. “I’ve never had one before,” Matteusz explained, which made Charlie smile. “But I imagine so. Just the two of us, forever, everything perfect?”

He nodded. “Then maybe I do.”

“Maybe you…”

“Believe,” Charlie quickly explained. “You’re right. I am here, on Earth. As a human. And we are together. And I think that we’re pretty perfect together.”

Matteusz let out a small laugh. “I think so also.”

Charlie hummed his agreement, rubbing his palm over Matteusz’s hip, right where he knew the mark was. “I still don’t understand,” he admitted after a moment. “But April says that we don’t have to understand soulmates.”

Matteusz really laughed at that. “You asked April?”

Charlie blushed and let out a huff. “I might’ve. I should think that that’s fair. And… it worked, didn’t it?”

“I suppose. Would have worked either way.”

“Maybe. You deserve a soulmate, though. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice something so important to humans for me.”

Matteusz let out a small sigh, gently lifting Charlie’s head. He opened his eyes, looking up at him curiously.

“Charlie,” he said softly. “I love you, if you are my soulmate or not. You don’t really think that that would stop me from loving you?”

He looked down. Yeah, he had definitely thought that. Though, a part of him had known that they were really meant to be the whole time, even if he hadn’t wanted to admit. Everything just clicked with him, like they were made for each other.

Charlie smiled as he considered that, with soulmates and all, they very well might have been.

“That doesn’t matter now, right? We’re here, together.”

“We are.”

Charlie sighed, content, as he met Matteusz’s gaze again. “Kiss me?” he murmured, voice soft.

He would be lying if he said that he hadn’t imagined this over the past few days. Not just Matteusz, necessarily— he was _very_ familiar with his lips. But having a soulmate. What it was like, to have somebody to love, unconditionally and forever.

When Matteusz kissed him, he didn’t have to imagine anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments, questions, requests, etc. here or @ gareth-walker.tumblr.com. Thank you so much for reading!!


End file.
